Pierre André Latreille

Pierre Andr? Latreille (November 20, 1762 - February 6, 1833) was a French entomologist. His works describing insects assigned many of the insect taxa still in use today.

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Latreille was born into a humble family of Brive-la-Gaillarde, Corr?ze, and in 1778 entered the college Lemoine in Paris. He was ordained a priest in 1786 and then went back to Brive, where he spent all of his free time studying insects. In 1788 he returned to Paris and became active in the scientific community there, his M?moire sur les mutilles d?couvertes en France gaining him admission to the Society for Natural History.

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As a priest with conservative leanings, the French Revolution made his situation uncomfortable; he left Paris, and was later imprisoned at Bordeaux. In 1796 he published Pr?cis des caract?res g?n?riques des insectes, dispos?s dans un ordre naturel at Brive.

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In 1798 he was given the task of arranging the entomological collection at the recently organized Mus?um National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris; in 1814 he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences (succeeding G. A. Olivier), and in 1821 he was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He was professor of zoology in the veterinary school at Alfort near Paris, and in 1830, when the chair of zoology of invertebrates at the Museum was divided after the death of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Latreille was appointed professor of zoology of crustaceans, arachnids and insects, the chair of molluscs, worms and zoophytes being assigned to Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville.

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The crab genus Latreillia is named in his honour.

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1762: 1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar)....

February 6: February 6 is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 328 days remaining, 329 in leap years....

1833: 1833 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar)....

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